Friday, September 20, 2019

J/109 Fast @ RORC Doublehanded Nationals

J/109 sailing offshore (Cowes, England)- The RORC hosted their 2019 IRC Doublehanded National Championship over a three-week period. It was a unique format to test the ability of doublehanded offshore teams to sail long distance offshore, as well as tightly fought inshore, around-the-buoys short course racing on the Solent. Coincidentally, all races started off the famous Royal Yacht Squadron starting line on the Solent. The first segment of the event used the RORC Cherbourg Offshore Race as the offshore component. Then, there was a weekend of racing from the RORC’s clubhouse and RYS starting line on the Solent for the fleet of a dozen teams from The Netherlands, United Kingdom, and Sweden.

After six races, the amazingly versatile offshore family cruiser-racer- the J/109- managed to pull off a podium finish against the latest semi-custom offshore European racing machines that were all purpose built to race as offshore doublehanded racing boats (with no interiors). In the end, Chris Preston’s J/109 JUBILEE pulled off a near miracle, completely dominating the last three inshore races with a 2-1-1 to score a bronze medal.  For more RORC Doublehanded Nationals sailing information Add to Flipboard Magazine.